50+ Desert Features For Fantasy Worldbuilding32 min read

Dunes. Sandstorms. Oases.Welcome back, Outlander, to the 6th entry in Mythic Ecology, my series on how learning real-world landscape features can enrich our fantasy worldbuilding and storytelling. In this post I return to my minimalist framework for Dungeon Masters, Game Masters, fiction writers, and similar worldbuilders to merge the realms of general myth and geomorphology. Last entry we looked at forests. As I resume my journey sketching a framework for designing Yridia, my unique D&D 5e fantasy world, let’s learn some desert terms, with a visual guide!

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PART 0: MYTHIC ECOLOGY FOR FANTASY WORLDBUILDING & STORYTELLING

When talking about desert worldbuilding, I’ll start out with a few recommendations: Famous Hippo’s Guide to the Desert For D&D 5e, and Stoneworks Worldbuilding’s “Everything About Deserts” video, which covers aspects like where deserts arise (e.g. the Western edges of continents), and many other considerations. You’ll also want to know where desert water tends to stay (i.e. the side facing away from the Equator).

Let’s talk symbolism. In The Anatomy of Story (2007), John Truby identifies the Desert as a narrative symbol of scarcity, of death and dying, of isolation, of will. A realm of extremes, invoking the supposed “primitive” past, or the desolate future. We usually think of deserts as barren landscapes, though technically not all deserts are highly arid, and natural deserts, as opposed to overgrazed ones, have high biodiversity in fact. Those less arid deserts, what we may call “the steppe”, I will cover in a later entry on plains. Likewise, more on ice deserts will fall under tundra.

Circling back, let’s revisit my minimalist framework for my worldbuilding. The six archetype tags with which I will flag all the various real-world land features in my Mythic Ecology Series:

1. Settlements: habitable regions of either Work or Play, Familiar or Exotic, offering diverse narrative functions: a Day in the Life, Home Base, Personal Reasons, Gathering Supplies. Can subvert tropes with Ruins or Escape.2. Omens: sensational, temporal, or particularly pointed features that offer narrative functions of forshadowing, and good or evil portents. Can subvert tropes with a Wild Goose Chase.3. Overlooks: sites of magnitude and grandeur, living monuments which can function narratively for finding resolve, invoking spirits, or as a Call to Adventure. Can subvert tropes with Dread or Betrayal.4. Passageways: transitional journeylands, including magical portals, functioning narratively for initiation and return, thresholds and tests, shortcuts and setbacks.5. Abyss: a void or confined space presenting scarcity or temptation, desperation and danger. Can subvert tropes with a Timely Rescue or Secret Refuge.6. Battlegrounds: sites fit for epic, sprawling encounters and climax conflicts. Can subvert tropes with Alternative Solutions.

Feel free to submit your own ideas, or draw outside the lines. Alright, let’s see how deserts fit in.

Rain Shadow Desert – formed when tall mountain ranges prevent clouds from reaching areas on another side, stripping the air of moisture as it passes. Example: Tian Shan Desert.

[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Coastal Desert – less stable deserts usually on the western edges of continents near the tropics, affected by cold ocean currents parallel to the coast. Can have winter fogs, but extremely infrequent rains. Example: Atacama Desert. Typically includes Fog Deserts.[Settlements, Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Parabolic / Blowout Dune – a crescent or U-shaped dune with horns point into the wind, with a depression between its tips. Typically arises with limited sand supply, hard ground, and constant wind, anchored at its short side by shrubs or rock.[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Bajada – a series of coalescing alluvial fans along a mountain front, formed as fan-shaped deposits of sediment, such as from flash floods in dry basins and playa lakes.[Omens, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Butte – an isolated hill taller than its width, with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top. Smaller than a Mesa or Plateau.[Omens, Overlooks, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Mesa / Table Hill – an elevated area with a flat top and steep cliff sides. Much larger than a Butte, but smaller than a Plateau. Forms from surviving erosion of surrounding area, with top layer resisting denudation of underlying rocks; often in arid areas.[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Plateau – elevated upland with at least one steep side spread over a large area; bigger than a Mesa or Butte; formed from tectonic, volcanic, or erosive activity.[Settlements, Overlooks, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

PART 5: WATERSOURCES, EXTANT & EXTINCT

Note: in real life, trying to drink water from the cacti, succulents, mosses, and gymnosperm plants adapted to store it actually sickens people. But in a fantasy roleplaying context you can choose to handwave that away and add “desert-adaptation” plant sources for characters to the list of watersources below. Your fantasy magic or tech might also allow fog-harvesting.

Arroyo / Wash – a dry creek or stream bed with waterflow after rain. Can become filled by Flash Floods. Discussed in Part 4: Rivers.[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Dew Puddle – a spot where dew condenses on rocks in arid environments, allowing for limited vegetation to grow.[Settlements, Omens]

PART 6: SPECIAL PHENOMENA

Boojum Tree – many desert plant species adapt in unique ways, such as this boojum tree.[Omens]

Decomposition Chimney / Devil’s Stovepipe – a hole formed when a sand dune buries a tree and the bark remains even after the tree core has rotten away, leaving a cylindrical void within the sand.[Omens, Passageways]

Mirage – an optical illusion of a vibrating, towering, or stooped projection of one surface onto another. In a hot desert this can include projections of the sky onto the ground that appear as water, a Mirage Oasis.[Omens, Passageways, Abyss]

Sandstorms – particles of sand particles (thicker than dust) carried aloft by strong winds and falling out of the air quickly, usually ranging from 10-50 feet above ground.[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Dust Storms – severe weather featuring strong winds which distribute dust-filled air (thinner than sand) over an extensive area, launching high and far and dispersing slowly. Dust Storms have several variations by season, including Haboobs.[Omens, Passageways, Abyss, Battlegrounds]

Sailing Stones / Walking Rocks / Rolling Stones / Moving Rocks – a phenomena where where rocks move and inscribe long tracks along a surface without human or animal intervention, arising when wind acts upon ice sheets to slide rocks on cold nights, often in deserts.[Omens, Abyss]

FINAL THOUGHTS

I hope you enjoyed this sixth entry in my Mythic Ecology series! I look forward to continuing with it, I have some greater ambitions for developing this series into worldbuilding web tools. Give this a share if you liked it, and let me know in the comments if you have any feedback. I publish new posts on Tuesdays. In the meantime, I post original D&D memes and writing updates daily over on my site’sFacebook Page. Also, if you want to keep up-to-date on all my posts, check out my Newsletter Sign-Up to receive email notifications when I release new posts. A big thanks as always to my Patrons on Patreon, helping keep this project going: Anthony, Bewby, Chris, Eric & Jones, Geoff, Jason, Rudy, and Tom. Thanks for your support!

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